Fire Island, which was directed by Andrew Ahn, arrives on Hulu three months ahead of the theatrical release of Billy Eichner’s Bros, which has been trumpeted as representing all sorts of carefully worded milestones, but neither is anywhere near the first gay romantic comedy to be made. All of its best parts - and there are plenty - exist outside of that framing, which raises the question of why it’s there at all except as a means of wrestling with its author’s ambivalence about the conventional wisdom that a happy ending is the result of a pairing off.
Noah, on the other hand, doesn’t believe in marriage, monogamy, or even necessarily the concept of romance itself, and his own entanglement with the standoffish Will (Conrad Ricamora) is sexier and less certain, not so much a coming together as the wrangling of someone skittish who might still turn and run for the hills.įire Island is, in other words, a reluctant romantic comedy that’s willing to acknowledge the genre’s shopworn pleasures while only begrudgingly indulging them itself. While Fire Island includes all kinds of requisite rom-com elements, from a pratfall meet-cute to a tearful misunderstanding to a grand gesture of a finale, they’re funneled into the experiences of Noah’s bestie, Howie (Bowen Yang), who’s the first to admit his desires run to the basic. Or maybe it’s the genre itself that’s the constraint.
Such are the privileges of having written the script - Booster is also an executive producer - though Fire Island feels hemmed in by its source material even when being loose and irreverent with it. All the best parts of Joel Kim Booster’s gay rom-com unfold outside its genre framing.įire Island is inspired by Pride and Prejudice, though focus too closely on mapping the details of Austen’s novel onto the film and you’ll notice that, as Noah, star Joel Kim Booster is effectively playing the witty one in his friend group (the Elizabeth) as well as its acknowledged beauty (the Jane).
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